artichoke hearts

30-minute recipes like this stuffed chicken thighs recipe with a mixture of creamy, melty goat cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts, and sun dried tomatoes that sits right under the crispy skin, not only make boring chicken dinners a thing of the past, but since it’s cooked all in one cast iron skillet, the typicial stack of dishes to wash goes by the wayside, too.

As a recipe creator, it’s part of my job to look through cookbooks. But as a regular-old, home cook, one of my favorite hobbies is to look at them for fun, too. Call me crazy—I’m okay with that—but don’t ever think I don’t find myself one of the lucky few who actually gets to weave a hobby they love into their full-time job. I mean, how many of us can count walking through the grocery store and squeezing avocados or deciding on shrimp or chicken for dinner tonight as the means for their paycheck? So when I receive another new cookbook in the mail, it’s like Christmas at our house. Make that Christmas in the kitchen.

Today’s recipe comes from Megan of the blog Country Cleaver‘s new cookbook Cast Iron Gourmet, with recipes any home cook can easily master. From one-pot dinners, to meals made with just 5 ingredients, or those ready in 30 minutes or less, these cast-iron skillet or dutch oven recipes prove her tagline of “with less fuss and fewer dishes” totally true. And totally my kind of recipes.

Chicken is always a popular recipe to prepare. The best grilled chicken. Oven roasted chicken (proof that garlic, lemon and rosemary are made for one another.) And of course slow cooker chicken. So it’s no wonder that while looking through Megan’s book that’s loaded with a bounty of comfort food recipes and deliciously inspiring photos, chicken is what made me stop and stare.

To put it simply, chicken can sometimes get boring. But not this one. I’ve been ready to add a cheese stuffed chicken recipe to the blog forever, so when this one loaded with my best-loved Mediterranean-inspired ingredients of artichokes, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes caught my eye, it went straight to the top of my to-make-list.Read More about Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Spinach and Goat Cheese

During the summer months, I make one variation or another of this Greek Pasta Salad at least twice a month, and because I have the basics down, it’s easy to pull together for get-togethers, potlucks and BBQs.

Just like a signature scent, song, and style, every home cook should have a defining mark that sets us apart from the pack. A signature dish. That one recipe to rely on, to go back to, time and time again. A recipe we know like the back of our hand, to pull out of our back pocket at a moment’s notice and feel 100% confident that THIS dish…this dish will deliver.

This hearty, filling slow cooker egg casserole recipe with Mediterranean flavors, goat cheese, and prosciutto is simple to put together and can be assembled the night before so it’ll cook while you sleep!

This post is in partnership with KraftRecipes.com. As always, thank you for reading and supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you. All opinions are always my own.

We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because the finish line is close. The end of 2016 is drawing near and holiday reverie is slowly slipping from our candy cane-grubbed-grasp.

There’s just one downside to the holidays. Okay, make that two.

The first one is that the holidays eventually come to an end. I’m a Christmas girl so holiday time for me is honestly the most wonderful time of the year.

The second—and the one we need to watch out for the most—is the supreme pressure we put on ourselves to make the holiday perfect. We overcommit, over-extend and over-do. This year I say we cut ourselves a little slack and take an easier way out—especially when it comes to cooking. How? By taking a few shortcuts to create a homemade holiday from the heart.Read More about Slow-Cooker Mediterranean Egg Casserole

Mediterranean flavors of roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, capers and feta cheese mix with a hint of cream and garlic to make a light sauce in this easy pasta dish.

My husband will attest that I am a shrimp pusher.

I love ’em. My husband? Let’s just say he’s more of a meaty guy as evidenced by this mess of a steak that almost makes me want to be a carnivore 154% of the time.

There are a few ingredients that perpetually live in my recipe rotation when it’s my turn to cook and shrimp is one of them. Routine? Sure. Rut? No way.

But that steak. It could change a woman.

When Better Homes and Gardens asked me to contribute a recipe to last spring’s SIP Better Homes and Gardens Top-Rated Recipes (SIP = special interest publications for anyone not familiar with acronyms for publishing speak) I only had one question. “Can I make shrimp?”

Salad might run through my veins like sugar does through those of a baker.

In fact, I’m not sure if I’ve ever gone more than 2 days without a salad in at least one of my rounds of eating. There’s always a side salad with dinner, it could be more fruit filled or sometimes there’s no lettuce at all. It’s a mix and match type of game more often than not.

But where I hit my real pleasure point is when I make a big daddy salad for a filling lunch or dinner.

Pack it with protein.

Add salty bits.

It definitely calls for a sprinkle of cheese.

And where would we be without the sharp tang of pucker-induced salad dressing?

And while we’re talking tangy puckers—not Tanya Tucker—I have a giveaway of over $250 worth of AWESOMENESS (jewelry anyone?) at the end of this post, so set your mouth, and your mouse, to scroll…

There are plenty of different places I find inspiration for tasty vittles that float my boat. A bite of a dish from a favorite restaurant, a mention from a cooking show I see on T.V and then there are these things on the internets called food blogs. Have you ever heard of ’em?

So when I’m searching for a specific recipe to fix for the fam, it’s usually my fingers that do the walking on my computer’s keyboard.

And while pundits have been plotting the demise of print ever since the internet wiggled it’s way into our information seeking hearts, I say au contraire mo-frair!

I’m still a die hard fan of the printed recipe—whether it’s listed in a favorite cookbook or magazine. And when I’m skimming their pages, that’s usually when inspiration strikes.

Eggs just might be one of those miracle ingredients. You know, the kind that can easily morph into breakfast or brunch then slide onto lunch and slither into brinner. Yep, breakfast + dinner = BRINNER! Bring on the mini fritattas.

If breakfast + dinner = brinner maybe this recipe should be classified as a Brapp.

Breakfast + appetizer = BRAPP? Or a brappetizer? Or perhaps you prefer breaketizer?

Symantics my friends, merely symantics.

The real deal is that these Mediterranean Mini Fritattas will solve any party need. Party for all? These are your deal. Party for one? Sit down—or stretch out—and enjoy an entire muffin tin full.

Bite size and poppable, these babies are seriously addictive. But that isn’t the only reason I’m a fan.